Recording - June 2015 - 26

The built-in Channel Strip EQ now lets you enter pitch note and cent
values instead of just frequencies in Hz for each band. The slopes on
the Low and High Pass filters have also been expanded with selectable values of 6, 12 (default), 24, 36, or 48 dB/octave.
New in the Project window
The Project window has also been updated. The Channel Inspector
has been been given a facelift and is much cleaner and more legible.
The other big change is dockablilty. The Instrument Racks, the
Media Bay, and even the new Chord Pads window-which we will
look at in a moment-are all dockable to the main window.

Render In Place
Also new is the ability to render tracks in place. It's the last part of
that phrase, "in place", that is important.
In the past, if you wanted to render an edited audio track you could
(and still can) bounce the selection, which does indeed render a new
audio file in place of the old one. However, if you wanted to render
the track with its added EQ, processing, and effects, or if you wanted an actual audio render of a MIDI / VSTi track, you had to export
the track through the audio mixdown menu and then have it reimported into the session. This was functional but clunky.
With the new Render In Place feature, you can bounce both audio
and MIDI instrument tracks, with or without insert effects, send effects,
and even master output routings, to a new audio track that pops up
in the session right below the original. You even get the option to
have that track automatically mute itself to avoid doubling of the
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RECORDING June 2015

audio. You can also Render a whole group of tracks at
once like a batch process, or even render them together as
a stereo bounce.
New effects: VST Bass Amp, Quadra Fuzz v2, and mo'
multiband
We'll start our overview of the new plug-ins in Cubase
Pro 8 with VST Bass Amp. It's built upon and functions similarly to Cubase's Amp Rack guitar effects modeler. It
comes with 6 bass amp heads, 4 cabinets, 8 mics with
selectable positions, 20 effects pedals, and more.
The six amps include: Green T (a Trace-Elliot model, very
smooth and fat), Greyhound (a Gallien-Kruger, complete
with aluminum cone stress when pushed hard), I-Tech (Tech
21, with a thin cutting tone), and Tweed (Fender, with great
breakup character for overdriven tone). My favorites are
Valve Amp, an Ampeg SVT300 model with aggressive
lows/low mids and a perfectly nailed high end that lets
string tone shine through, and Paradise, an Eden emulation
with truly believable low-end cabinet extension and a sound
that I know well from years of playing with an "Eden guy."
Frankly I expected this to be a simple "okay" add-on.
Instead I have found it quite suitable for use in direct bass
tracking, for sweetening a DI'd tone in a mix, or even as an
effect on kick drum and Moog-style bass synths. I do quite a
bit of live recording with direct bass, and this plug-in has made
it into a lot of my mixes, lately adding life to the bass.
This is the type of plug-in that a few years ago would have
cost a few hundred dollars on its own; it's very versatile with its
varied mic models, positions, effects, and more. Check out
Cubase 8's product page for more info and audio samples.
In the previous Cubase update, Steinberg brought back
the classic Magneto saturation plug-in. This time it's the
Quadra Fuzz plug-in, with a new retro GUI in version 2.
This is a musical mangler that splits up a signal into four
bands and allows you to apply a choice of tape grit, tube
saturation, distortion, amp overdrive, or even modern lo-fi
bit decimation, individually and separately to each band.
Each channel offers harmonic delay possibilities as well.
Beyond the obvious sound design and modern aggressive music uses, I find Quadra Fuzz v2 great for adding
subtle grit and amp style realism to virtual electric pianos,
as well as for blending in a touch of saturated roughness
to vocal tracks.
Steinberg has revamped Cubase's Multiband Compressor
and has added a new Multiband Expander and Multiband
Envelope Shaper as well. The later is similar to SPL's
Transient Designer in style, but with the ability to process different audio bands in different amounts at the same time.
The DeEsser and Tuner have been updated as well.
Groove Agent SE 4 with Acoustic Agent
On the virtual instrument front, Groove Agent SE 4 (a
scaled down version of Steinberg's Groove Agent 4)
includes Acoustic Agent SE, a new light version of the
Acoustic Agent module found in GA4. Similar to offerings
by FXpansion and Toontrack, this is a highly editable
hyper-real drum kit, complete with sophisticated articulations, tied to realistic MIDI grooves.
It offers a single pop-style kit where you can alter the pitch
and tone of each drum, alter each kit piece's overall level,
and tweak hi-hat articulations... right down to how far apart
they are when open, shanking, and more. There is also a
full mixer where you can mix each drum with the room and
overhead mix, as well as add processing and effects.
When playing back one of the included MIDI grooves,
Steinberg has included a new refinement of one of my
favorite parts of the company's original Groove Agent software. This is an interactive performance dial where you

Recording - June 2015

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